Don't  Take The Girl
by The Cliffhanger Girl
Summary: He never saw this coming. Just like everything in his life, this supposed "miracle" had turned into a depressing recipe of disaster.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! So I've been trying out lots of one-shots from inspirations from songs. So, this one came to me from a song called "Don't Take The Girl" By Tim McGraw. Now, I'm not much of a country style kind of girl, but this song really spoke to me when I listened to it. When I listened to it, the first time it made me cry. So give Tim McGraw credits for this one-shot. Anyways, please enjoy Don't Take The Girl...

**Warnings:** Very touchy subject. You've been warned.

_**A Special Thanks To My Beta Reader**_-lizzzxx0 (CHECK OUT HER STORY **Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow-**IT'S AMAZING**) Send her your love and reviews! **

I also wanted to dedicate this one-shot to _**ceeceeluvsu2, deena, ANAHI'Simagnation and JDDCdancer1497. **_They always read my stories and leave me positive reviews so I really appreciate that! If I missed you, which I probably did I will get around to thanking you! Trust me, if I could thank everyone of you personally, I would!

Anyways, on to the story...

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><p><em>DON'T TAKE THE GIRL<em>

_**There are only two ways to live your life. One, is as though nothing is a miracle. **_

_**The other is as though everything is a miracle. **_

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><p><strong>ELI'S PERSPECTIVE<strong>

_**I remember that day; I remember it because it was only yesterday…**_

_**(FLASHBACK BEGINS)**_

"E-Eli it's time to go," she whispered as I clenched my eyes shut, not wanting to move from my comfortable position.

I had finally gotten her to fall asleep after she successfully vomited all over the bathroom floor and had stopped shaking.

_**I wasn't really in the mood for getting up and doing it all over again, although if it was me in her position I would want someone by my side. **_

"W-what?" I asked as my hand trailed down the bed sheets. My eyes shot open when I felt a strange fluid between my fingers.

_**Her water broke.**_

"Eli, it's time," she whispered again, trying to keep calm.

"_**It's time," one of the many words that escape a woman's mouth that could make a man's heart race faster than the speed of light.**_

I choked on my breath and asked, "The time? As in, IT'S TIME?"

She nodded and I said, "Oh fuck! Alright, you stay right here and I'll get everything in the car. J-Just keep breathing and everything will be fine!"

_**Everything was going to be fine. **_

My hands searched for anything it could grab at that point because my heart was racing so fast that I had gone nearly blinded by my surroundings. The poundings from my heart had echoed through my head which caused me to flinch.

I heard the steps creak, breaking my concentrated trance and I spun around, "Clare, what are you doing? I told you to stay upstairs!"

_**It was time.**_

She smiled and said, "Eli, sorry to break it to you but this baby isn't going to wait until you get back upstairs. We need to go…NOW!"

Her breathing hitched as she hissed in agony and I ran to her side, supporting her before she could hit the wooden floor.

I hitched the baby bag over my shoulder and grabbed my cell phone to call Adam on the way and ask him to come back for all the stuff I would have to abandon at that point.

"E-Eli, just please get me to the hospital," she whimpered while gripping the collar to my shirt.

_**She was nervous.**_

I slipped my right arm around her waist to support her weak body as we quickly walked to Morty.

"It's alright, just keep breathing," I whispered as I opened the passenger door and she slipped into the front seat.

Once she was in, I ran around to the other side of the car and moved behind the wheel.

"Eli! Hurry U-up!" She screeched when I then noticed that I forgot my keys on the kitchen table.

_**Fuck**_

I quickly flung open the door and she screamed, "I can't believe you forgot the fucking keys Eli!"

_**Sorry**_

I flipped my keys in my hand as I ran back into the car and started up Morty. When the engine roared I silently thanked the gods of mechanics for that sound.

_**If the car didn't work, I think I'd cry…and then Clare would yell at me. **_

_**That is definitely not what I needed at five in the morning on top of the pressure of getting Clare to the hospital before she had our baby in my fucking car. **_

Clare's breathing hitched and she said, "Eli I need your hand."

My eyes were glued to the road as she repeated franticly, "Eli I need your hand!"

I held out my right hand as she gripped it tightly and her grip tightened every few moments which led to releasing low and painful shrieks.

"We're almost there Clare, hang in there," I said while switching my glances from Clare and the road.

_**I wish I could transfer your pain to me.**_

_**Oh if I could, I would. **_

"E-Eli it hurts, please hurry," she whimpered while clenching her eyes tightly as tears escaped her eyes every time she blinked.

"I know it does sweetheart, I know it does, just keep breathing. We are only two minutes away, barely," I whispered as she hissed and grabbed my hand tightly once again.

"Eli start counting N-NOW!" I was puzzled by her order when I realized she was trying to go by what she learned in the birth class we recently went to.

_**I started to count.**_

She screamed out in pain as I slammed down on the breaks, noticing that we were already at the hospital and I jumped out of the car and ran around to the other side, opening the door and said, "Its fifty seconds Clare."

Clare bobbed her head up and down while trying to concentrate on practicing her breathing exercises and said, "Eli I'm not ready for this."

"I'll be right by your side Clare, we're going to get through this together," I informed her as I kissed the top of her head and we rushed into the hospital.

_**I love you Clare, you can do this. **_

I let go of Clare to run ahead of her and stopped myself short as the lady behind the desk said, "Yeah yeah, I know, woman in labor. Fill out these forms and we'll take her upstairs."

I nodded while gripping the clipboard out of her hands and I wrapped my free arm around Clare while helping her into the wheelchair, "Eli I can't do this without you."

_**She gripped onto my hand tightly as I kissed it gently and…let go. **_

"I have to fill out the forms, I'll be in your room in one minute," I told her as the nurse rolled her wheelchair down the hallway.

My hands shook as I tried to scribble down our information and when I noticed that I had put my name where Clare's was supposed to be I growled in aggravation.

My eyebrows pinned together when I felt someone tugging at my baby bag.

_**If someone's trying to jack my baby shit right now I swear to god…**_

I spun my whole body around to come in contact with Adam who was holding an extra pen that I stuck in my baby bag, "Dude, relax its me."

I smiled and wrapped my arms around him.

_**Thank god for my best friend Adam. **_

"I heard Clare was going into labor," Adam said while gripping the clipboard out of my hand and began to fill out the forms.

I was in no position to question and he asked, "Are you going to go or just stand here and watch me fill out your forms?"

I left as quickly as he came.

"Tell Clare I said hey!" Adam screeched as I ran down the hallway and around the corner.

My chest heaved up and down as I tried to find where she was.

_**I hated hospitals, they were like fucking mazes.**_

"O-oh my god!" I heard a woman screaming loudly in the distance and at that moment, I knew that it was Clare.

I followed her voice and the second I entered the room I glanced at Clare who was red in the face and flustered as hell.

"Eli get over here!" She screamed at me as I ran to her side and took her hand in mine.

_**Everything was happening so fast. **_

Doctors rushed in around us and I kept my eyes on Clare's face which only read fear and concern. She has been obsessing on having a healthy baby and making sure this child has all the love we can give it.

"The contractions are ten seconds apart now, you're going to have to start pushing Clare," the doctor told her as she gulped while gripping my hand tighter.

_**Is it possible for a hand to turn a shade of purple? **_

"Listen to him Clare, you've got to push honey, alright?" I asked her while kissing her earlobe and watching her emotionless face.

"I'm scared E-Eli," her chest heaved up and down in between sudden shrieks from the contractions.

_**She has to push.**_

"Clare, you have to push," I ordered as Clare kept her eyes on me which resulted in painful shrieks that released from her lips.

"Just keep pushing," I told her while stroking my fingers through her beautiful hair.

_**She's breathtaking, even at a time like this.**_

After several pushes later, many ear piercing screams from Clare and a couple of veins in my hand being popped, I heard a baby cry.

_**She's beautiful, just like her mom. **_

I glanced at Clare and her eyes had weakly started to close and the monitors started to beep frantically and before I knew it I was being shoved out of the room by the nurses.

"The baby's fine but you'll have to leave," they told me as I tried to fight back into the room.

"What's wrong with her? What's going on?" I screamed out as no one would give me an answer and I was thrown out of the room only to have my back hit the hallway wall.

I slid down it and my heart raced. From the hallway I could hear the doctors and nurses desperately trying to save Clare, my Clare. I could've sworn that I heard the monitor flat line. No! It didn't! Clare is alive and we will all go home after this. The three of us, as a family.

_**She can't be dead.**_

_**No. **_

I've been an atheist for as long as I can remember but, right now, I'm on my knees, staring at the hallway ceiling with my fingers interlocked.

For the first time in my life, I prayed.

"Take me instead, take me instead," I pleaded as tears streamed down my face.

_**She can't leave me, everything was just getting better.**_

"Please, god don't take her away from me, please," I pleaded into the open air and got no response as I expected.

"Take the very breath you gave me, take the heart from my chest, I'll gladly take her place if you'll let me, make that my last request. Take me out of this world, god please don't take the girl," I mumbled lowly as tears continued to stream down my face.

_**Let me take her place!**_

_**She doesn't deserve to go!**_

"Eli what's going on?" I spun my head around to see Adam with his face sheet white and holding the forms in his hands.

He kneeled beside me and asked, "What's wrong? Why aren't you in the room with Clare?"

_**His innocent words hit me harder than I thought as I continued to sob. **_

"Eli, what's wrong with Clare?" Adam whispered.

_**Another hit to the chest. **_

I clenched my eyes tightly and wrapped my weak arms around Adam. I gripped onto him as tight as my body would let me.

I breathed in as my chest rose up and down unevenly against Adam's. My heart thumped franticly out of my chest as my lips let out uncontrollable sobs.

"He's taking her away from me," I whispered in Adam's ear so lowly that I could not even understand my words.

Adam continued to pat my back in attempt to try and stop my back from rising at an erratic pace as the tears continued to drip lazily onto Adam's jacket.

"Who? Who's taking her away from you Eli?" Adam asked me in a whispered tone, trying not to upset me.

_**Trying **__not to upset me._

_**(FLASHBACK ENDS)**_

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><p>In the blink of an eye, my life changed before me.<p>

_**My life had gone from happy to sad, together to in pieces, and livable to unlivable in a matter of ground breaking seconds. **_

That day I walked out of that hospital, I walked out without Clare and with a baby in my arms. I had no idea how to raise a child and nonetheless raising it alone wasn't going to be…successful.

I went into the hospital that day having no intentions of walking out of it without Clare by my side.

_**Clare was my sunlight in my gloomy world, the light at the end of the dark tunnel that I had created myself. **_

_**She saved me from me all the time.**_

_**Now what was I going to do? **_

My eyes flinched as I listened to the baby upstairs cry her eyes out and I remembered who I had blamed for Clare's death.

"God."

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><p><strong>So, um reviews?<strong>

I listened to your guys' reviews on other one-shots saying you wanted more so...there ya have it ;)

Please review, it'll make my day!

Love you guys,

Cliffhanger Girl

3


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys, so **TVIsMyDrug4 **recommended a follow up on this supposed one-shot, but the song "Holes In The Floor Of Heaven" was recommended in the review and I couldn't pass this opportunity up after I listened to it. So, I decided to make this a two-shot. Please Enjoy the second chapter of Don't Take The Girl...

**A Special Thanks To My Beta Reader**-lizzzxx0

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><p><strong><span>HOLES IN THE FLOOR OF HEAVEN-CHAPTER 2 OF DON'T TAKE THE GIRL<span>**

_** Everyone must go through a storm to get to a rainbow.**_

**ELI'S PERSPECTIVE**

Here we are, twenty three years after the death of my wife, Clare.

Yes I might feel the same, the same heart ache that I did that day and the same feeling in my stomach that leaves me nauseous. Ever since that day, I made a vow to myself that I would never move on. Everyone tells me how ridiculous I am that I won't just face the music and be with someone else.

I remember when Adam told me that I should go out with another woman for the sake of my daughter. He told me how much she was going to need a female figure in her life to help her.

But, I refused.

_**No one will ever be like Clare, no one.**_

_**She was and will always be...one of a kind.**_

I remember how Adam and Fiona tricked me into going out with them one night and tried to set me up on a blind date. That was just as unsuccessful as them trying to get me out of my house.

"Dad," I heard my daughter say, breaking me out of my trance as I glanced up at her.

_**She was beautiful, just like her mother.**_

"How do I look?" She asked while spinning around in her wedding dress.

I slowly stood up and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. I glared at my daughter in the mirror and she smiled softly as I whispered, "You look beautiful baby girl."

She turned around and I watched tears escape her eyes.

_**Her tears looked just like Clare's and they hit me just as hard as Clare's.**_

I used my thumb to gently rub the tear away and she whispered, "I wish mom were here."

"You don't have to wish anything Jackline, she's here" I told her as her eyebrows tightened in confusion. I watched as her blue eyes glanced around the room and she glared back up at me to say, "No she's not."

_**Clare was always here and she always will be.**_

"Jackline, she's been watching you ever since you were born," I whispered and she scoffed while ripping out of my gentle grip on her.

She sat down on the chair in front of the mirror and I kneeled down beside her and said, "If she was physically here, she would tell you how beautiful you look baby girl and how much you've grown."

_**I still remember cradling her in my arms as she would cry until she fell asleep.**_

"You have to say that because you're my dad," she mumbled and I smirked at her quick and witty comments.

I smirked as tears streamed down my face, "Your mother loved you Jackline. She loved you so much that words couldn't describe it. She was the most amazing woman I've ever met. I know for a fact that she is watching you right now, from heaven."

_**After Clare's death, I converted to Catholicism.**_

"I wish she was here," she mumbled while wiping the tears from her eyes.

_**Trust me, me too.**_

"I know, I wish I could hold her in my arms and there isn't one day that goes where I don't wish she was here. But, we have to learn to move on because she is with us," I whispered and she smiled.

"You're right dad," she whispered as I stood on my feet and held out my hand.

Her tiny hand interlocked with mine and for a second I swore I could see Clare's face on hers.

"I love you so much," I whispered as she wrapped her arms around my waist. I felt her chest rise against my chest unevenly as tears were being shed on my suit. Her back rose up and down frantically while she sobbed.

"I love you dad," she whispered while glancing up at me with those big beautiful eyes and breath taking smile.

_**As much as it hurt telling Jackline that her mother was watching from heaven, I couldn't help but let tears escape my eyes and roll down my cheeks.**_

"Are we ready?" I heard Alli ask while licking her lips excitingly.

"It's time," I whispered while pecking her on the forehead and she smiled, "It's okay dad, everything will be okay."

_**"Everything will be fine," the four words that are the biggest joke in the universe.**_

Less than ten minutes later, Jackline's right arm was wrapped tightly around my left arm as we slowly walked down the aisle. Everyone in the church had been standing by this time and they were smiling at Jackline.

_**I was proud of her and as much as I didn't want to let her go, Clare had convinced me last night in my dream.**_

_"She has to grow up sometime Eli,_" she told me as I smirked; remembering her curly hair was tossed in all different directions and her face was tinted pink.

I smiled at her fiancé and whispered, "Take care of my little girl."

"I will sir," he said as I was about to hand over my baby girl in the arms of another man.

_**My heart broke instantly at the sight.**_

Jackline had noticed the hurt in my eyes as I just remained in the aisle, motionless and glaring at her.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I heard Clare whisper in my head,_ "Don't worry Eli, you did the right thing."_

"Come on man, you have to get out of the aisle," Adam mumbled while gripping my right arm and when I was about to move out of the way my little girl grabbed onto my arm.

"Daddy, don't be sad because I know mommy's watching now," she whispered and I smirked.

_**She is watching, wishing she could be here now.**_

I watched as my daughter got married on the very altar I had with Clare.

_**After the wedding cleared out, I remained here, in the first pew and silently prayed.**_

My head shot up when I heard Clare's giggle.

I might not have heard it in a long time, but when I heard it at that very moment, I didn't have to think about it as I followed her voice.

"Eli," I heard Clare say as I stopped, cemented in my spot.

_**I wasn't dreaming or...imagining this, it was real.**_

"Clare?" I asked as she stood across from me and when I went to wrap my arms around her, it was as if she was actually here.

_**To hold onto her arms, to touch her, to feel her once again was amazing.**_

Tears flowed down my face as I stroked my fingers through her hair and she sobbed into my chest.

"Oh Eli," she whispered while using her hands to get out of my tight grip.

_**I stood there, wondering why.**_

She smiled and said, "I'm just a figment of your imagination Eli, I'm nothing more."

"N-no, no you're not, you're right here, with me!" I whispered while reaching for her hand but she pulled away quickly.

_**Clare stood before me, her face was expressionless.**_

"I missed you so much Clare. Please let me touch you," I lunged for her and when I tried to wrap my arms around her she quickly vanished.

_**I dropped to my knees as I glanced around the church, waiting for her to come back.**_

"I'm sorry I did this Eli, it was a bad idea. I love you...but you have to let go, for me," I heard her whisper in my ear.

I shook my head and asked, "Can I go with you?"

_**I had no one to live for anymore. Jackline will be off with her husband, Adam and Fiona had their own life ahead of them and Alli, well, she isn't the best person to be around at times.**_

After a moment of silence she said, "Take my hand."

_**My heart raced as my eyes searched for her tiny hand to grip, but I couldn't find it.**_

I smiled when I found it and I stood up to run over to the door and grip her hand in mine and forever, we can be together.

She reappeared beside me and asked, "You see right there?"

Her finger extended out through a stain glass window in the church and as far as I could see, I could see Clare and she was dancing around while blushing bright red and smiling at me.

"Yeah, I see you," I whispered and she smiled, "Good, now whenever you want to see me...I'll always be there."

_**Before I knew it, she had disappeared from my sight.**_

When I thought for a measly second that I was alone, that I was never going to see her again, I glared out through the stain glass window.

As I searched for her, I smirked when I saw her.

_**I stood there, in amazement and pure bliss that I could see her as if she was right next to me.**_

"I love you," I mouthed and jumped when I felt someone's arm being placed over my shoulder.

It was only Adam who asked, "What are you looking at?"

I smirked and whispered, "Clare."

He nodded, going along with me and said, "Come on man, it's time to get you home."

_**But, I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay here in this spot, in this church, forever.**_

"Go with him," Clare whispered and I smirked, "Okay."

"What?" Adam asked and I slapped him in the back of the head while continuing, "I wasn't talking to you dummy."

_**I'll see you tomorrow Clare...**_

After Adam dropped me off and I changed out of my tux, I was in my backyard, throwing a stick towards underneath the table as my dog ran to go get it.

When he handed me back the stick, I glanced up at sky.

I smirked when I saw holes in the sky.

"How else would she be able to come down to see you?" Adam asked and I jumped slightly because I thought he left.

_**He saw Clare too.**_

"I don't know," I whispered while standing up and letting the tears stream down my cheek.

"How else Eli?" He asked while pointing to the explainable holes in the sky.

I smiled as I watched the rain start to fall from the sky and I whispered, "When I see the rain, it reminds me of her tears. It's like she's crying and...that's how I know that there are holes in the floor of heaven...and she's watching over me."

END

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><p><strong>So, reviews are welcome (:<strong>

Please tell me if you think I did well with this second part and please, keep the reviews to only constructive criticism and positive. Thank you :)

Love you guys,

Cliffhanger Girl

3


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